Machine for splitting leather



A N 9 B 1R E MAQHINE FOR SPLITTING LEATHER Filed Aug. 3, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet l w wfiw 1%. L} F WEBER MACHINE FOR SPLITTING LEATHER Filed Aug. 3, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Apr. 7, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT oFFicE MACHINE FOR SPLITTING LEATHER Application August 3, 1934, Serial No. 738,325 In Great Britain July 28, 1934 4 Glaims.

This invention relates to splitting machines and is herein illustrated as embodied in a machine for use in splitting a blank to which a template has been applied.

In the manufacture of shoes, it is customary in some cases to separate a sole blank into an outsole and an insole in such manner that there is produced in the forepart of the insole an opening and on the flesh side of the forepart of the sole a projection which is the counterpart of the opening. In order to produce from a sole blank an insole and an outsole of the kind described, it has been proposed to locate upon the blank a properly shaped template and then to run the blank and the template through a Splitting machine. In carrying out this procedure, there is a tendency for the blank and the template to become displaced to some extent relatively to eachother.

In order to obviate this tendency, and in accordance with one feature of the invention, there is located in front of the rolls of the splitting mechanism a pair of deformable presser rolls which act, in conjunction with the rolls of the splitting mechanism, to hold the blank and template from movement with respect to each other. In the illustrated construction, these presser rolls are covered with rubber and are separable to permit the blank and the template to be thrust between them.

This and other features of the invention including certain details of construction and combinations of parts will be pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a portion of a machine by the use of which the method may conveniently be practiced;

Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section;

Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal section through the sole blank and template, the line of cut of the knife being shown;

Fig. 4 is a perspective of the template;

Fig. 5 is a perspective of the sole with the projection on its forepart;

Fig. 6 is a perspective of the insole with the opening in its forepart; and

Fig. 7 is a perspective of the sole on the line VIIVII of Fig. 5.

Any suitable splitting machine may be used, the illustrated machine being substantially like the machine disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 894,850, granted August 4, 1908, on an application filed in the name of Frederick J. Nash. Briefly, the machine comprises a knife 9 and a pair of feed rolls H, I3 made of rigid material. The lower roll i3 is normally held up against stops by heavy springs. The upper roll E E is mounted in bearings (one of which is shown at 85) which are vertically slidable, said bear- 5 ings having wedges (one of which is shown at ii) which cooperate with oppositely inclined wedges on a slide bar 19. Springs hold the wedges on the bearings of the roll H up against the wedges on the slide bar so that, when the slide bar is adjusted transversely of the machine, the roll it is raised or lowered. A pointer 2i pivoted at to the frame of the machine is swung when the slide bar 69 is adjusted so as to indicate on a scale the distance of the lower element of the roll H from the edge of the knife. No further description of the splitting mechanism will be given, reference being made to the patent for details of construction not herein described. It will be understood, however, that in the ordinary use of such a machine for evening sole blanks, the blank is fed by the rolls to the knife, the finished sole passing over the knife and being reduced to a uniform thickness depending upon the height to which the bearings of the upper roll have been adjusted, and that the shaving passes beneath the knife.

In order to split a sole blank so as to produce the sole and insole shown respectively in Figs. 5 and 6, a template 27 is used, such template having an outline slightly larger than that of the sole blank and being provided in its forepart with an opening 29 the wall of which is beveled in two directions, as shown at 3% and 33. The blank E39 and the template 2? are superposed, as shown in Fig. 3, with the grain side of the blank next to the template and are then presented, toe ends foremost, to the splitting mechanism. That part of the sole blank which registers with the opening 29 in the template is 41) forced more or less into the opening to distort the sole blank in such manner that the sole and insole shown in Figs. 5 and 6 are produced. In Fig. 3, the path of the cut of the knife along the longitudinal median line of the blank is shown, 5 it being understood that the blank and template are fed from left to right, as viewed in that figure. The knife enters at the point indicated by the arrow, makes a short cut 35 substantially parallel to the plane of the blank, emerges from the blank on the flesh side at 37, enters the blank again at 39 and finally makes the long out 4| to the heel end of the blank. There results thus a sole 200 having a projecting portion 300 on its flesh side and an insole 400 having an opening 500 with a beveled margin in its forepart which is the counterpart of the projection on the sole.

In order that the sole and template may be held securely from relative movement, there are provided in front of the feed rolls ll, l3 a pair of presser rolls 43, 45 so constructed that their peripheries may be deformed, said rolls being herein shown as rubber rolls. The shaft of the lower presser roll 45 is rotatably mounted in bearings carried by upright arms 41 of a bracket 49 which is pivoted about the common axis of conical screws 5| and may be adjusted about this axis by turning screws 53. The shaft of the upper presser roll 43 is rotatably mounted in bearings in the arms of a generally U-shaped member 55, said arms being pivoted about the common axis of alined screws 51 which extend through bores in the arms 4'! and are threaded into the arms of the U-shaped member 55. Strong tension springs 59, which are connected at their upper ends to screws 6| carried by the arms of the U-shaped member and at their lower ends to screws 63 carried by the bracket 49, normally hold the presser roll 43 close to the presser roll 45 in a position determined by an adjustable stop screw 57. In order to separate the presser rolls to permit a blank and its superposed template to be forced between them, the upper end of a treadle rod 69 is attached to one of the arms of the U-shaped member 55, the lower end of this rod being attached to a treadle, not shown.

In the operation of the machine, the template and the sole blank are first properly located in superposed relation. The rubber presser rolls are then separated by depressing the treadle to permit the sole and template to be thrust between them. The treadle is then released so that the rubber rolls engage the blank, after which the sole and the template are pushed forward into contact with the feed rolls of the splitting mechanism. The presser rolls hold the blank and template firmly until the feed rolls have securely gripped them, and thereafter the sole and template are firmly gripped in two localities during the greater part of the splitting operation and particularly during the time that the cut is being made which forms the opening in the insole and the projection on the outsole. The

presser rolls, being made of rubber, are particularly effective since they are deformed by being pressed against the blank and the template so that they not only grip these two articles together over a considerable area, but more or less wrap themselves about the edges of the two articles and distort the blank to some extent by forcing a portion of its forepart into the opening in the template.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A machine for splitting a blank to which a rigid template is applied having, in combination, a knife, a pair of feed rolls located in front of the knife, and a pair of deformable presser rolls located in front of the feed rolls, the bites of the two pairs of rolls being located in substantially the same plane.

2. A machine for operating upon a blank to which a rigid template is applied having, in combination, a knife, a pair of feed rolls located in front of the knife, a pair of deformable presser rolls located in front of the feed rolls, yielding means for urging the presser rolls toward each other, and operator-controlled means for separating the presser rolls, the bites of the two pairs of rolls being located in substantially the same plane.

3. A machine for splitting a blank to which a rigid template is applied having, in combination, a knife, a pair of feed rolls located in front of the knife, a pair of rubber presser rolls located in front of the feed rolls the bites of the two pairs of rolls being located in substantially the same plane, yielding means for urging the presser rolls toward each other, and operator-controlled means for separating the presser rolls to permit the template and blank to be thrust between them.

4. A machine for splitting a skeleton insole from a sole blank to which a template has been applied having, in combination, a knife, a pair of feed rolls located in front of the knife, a bracket pivoted to the frame of the machine, a pair of presser rolls supported by the bracket, yielding means for urging the presser rolls toward each other, and operator-controlled means for separating the presser rolls.

LEWIS F. WEBER. 

